Opaque3D | Blog

This is some sort of a rant against those who thing that animators and their software are some sort of mandrakes, always with a trick under their sleeves.

It always gets me when people are excessively ignorant. I read something on the newspaper the other day, and the columnist was talking about how wonderful computer animation was, because with the click of a button you could create an army of tens of thousands of warrior. Mind me… I’ve been using Maya for several years now, and I still haven’t found that button that creates the army.

That’s the reason for this blog’s entry title. People sometimes are so dumb they think we have some sort of infinite library of assets that allows us to pretty much drag-and-drop. Yeah, I know it’s easy to have the Gollum and Witchking primitive inside Maya. I am pretty sure they must have been some real big time savers for Peter Jackson. And let’s not forget about the Cloverfield monster and parasite primitives. I really have to thank Alias (and now Autodesk), Avid, SideFX, Newtek and such, for developing such amazing software that allows us to come up with the next blockbuster film in less than a freaking week.

It’s amazing to have all those “create terrain”, “create ocean”, “create human”, “create elephant”, “create lion”, “create hurricane”, and ”create army” buttons. It’s because of all those buttons that we can create such amazing work with one single mouseclick.

“Some guy” told me he wanted a fully featured animated 30 sec commercial by the end of the week, but that he needed at least a 4 second shot by next morning… Well, easy, all I have to do is load up that Environment from my extensive library of pre-made assets, then load up the characters and then plug the USB to my nose so the computer generates all the animation on the fly by reading my mind.
Idiot…

Ok… rant’s over.
I will only ask the next person that comes up with something that stupid to please show me where that “Create tens of thounsands soldiers” button is, but I can’t find it. He/she can even borrow my computer if he/she wants, as long as I am told where that freaking button is.

I am slowly recovering from my Carpal Tunnel, and my wrist is almost brand new. I still get pains from time to time if I use the computer too much, so I try not to force myself too much.

Even so, I had to begin working again, so I made this for a possible client. The video is a non-commercial demo of a bunny and the milk-chocolate pack, and it was made for the company that makes that milk-chocolate (yes, the character they use is a bunny). For this I used GI, dynamics for the ears and tail and also cloth simulation for the clothing. Now I am just waiting to see what they say and hoping I get the account

Click here to watch the video.

Hello

I had begun working on this a month ago but due to the carpal tunnel I had to stop. This is a proof of concept that I am developing for a possible client. I had finished the model a while ago but it wasn’t till yesterday that I retook this work, so I’ve been slowly painting the texture (they are simple textures but still it’s difficult to paint with a sore hand).

Also I will add fur to it to make it look cooler, and then I will make an animation. The idea is to use him for commercial spots so he also has to work well in motion.